98th Entry Halton Apprentices

Rod Renshaw has now joined the computer world and is surfing the internet. If anyone would like to get in touch with Rod his e-mail address will soon appear in the Contacts List. Welcome Rod, to the 98th Entry On-Liners.

When the search for Entry members began with the help and ‘know-how’ of Jackie and Vic Munro, we had in mind a target of finding 60 brats from the Entry by the end of the year. There was nothing scientific in the figure, just something to aim for. We had no idea whether or not [...]

Dave Curtis has been successfully contacted by Pete de Claire and thanks to his efforts we now have his phone number and address. It is an excellent result to have traced one of our Entry electrician’s because there were very few of them in the first instance . But thanks to Pete, we have another 98er to [...]

Our  investigators have done it again. After a lull in our run of recent successes Pete de Claire has booked in having been tracked down in Gloucestershire. He also knows the whereabouts of Dave Curtis and so it could be a ‘double whammy’ for us. More news on that development as we get it. Pete [...]

Richard Gurr has just checked in with me having received my letter. The investigators have been a little despondent lately at not getting any responses from the large batch of letters sent out. But our efforts have now been rewarded once again and I am delighted to welcome Richard to the fold. He tells me [...]

There seems to be a number of 98 er’s who worked on or flew in the mighty Vulcan. I first came in to contact with the beast at Akrotiri when I was stationed there from 1967 to 1970. The photo above of XL392 on the busy pan at Akers was taken during my time in [...]

The dramatic fall in RAF manpower over our lifetime has led to sayings such as ‘will the last man to leave switch the lights off’. In 1961 we had 17 squadrons of ‘V’ bombers alone, comprising some 164 aircraft. The RAF manpower levels when we joined up were around 148,000 and today they stand at less than 41,000. [...]

The photo above was taken in the Airframe Hangar where Riggers learnt the secrets of their trade such as:  ’If you can’t fix it with a hammer, you’ve got an electrical problem’. Left to Right: Pete Lake, Mike Mason and Andy Folliard. The beautiful people!

What happened to your RAF Greatcoat when you finally left Halton for the last time? They were worn when we last marched around the ’square’ for our ‘Passing Out Parade’. However, following that event I never put mine on again. It ended it’s life drapped over the bonnet of my car to help protect the engine from the freezing winter [...]

The ladies will be full of expectation when the Golden Oldies get going!